PlzGivHugs
@PlzGivHugs@sh.itjust.works
- Comment on Half-Life 2 is currently 100% for its 20th anniversary 1 day ago:
Well, they implemented some graphical improvements and options, as well as workshop mod support so now would be a good time for a replay.
- Comment on How far away are we from someone using AI to create an animated TV show by themselves. 1 day ago:
Technically, it can and has been done already. The problem is that AI is very bad at creating new ideas and even worse at understanding what it has created (as is required for plots or jokes). As a result, any writting created with heavy AI influence tends to sound like a child’s stream of thought with an adult’s vocabulary, and any jokes rely purely on randomness or on repeating an existing well-known joke. Similarly with art and animation, because the AI doesn’t understand what it is creating, it struggles to keep animation of elements consistant and often can’t figure out how elements should be included in the scene. Voices are probably the strongest part, but even then, it can be buggy and won’t change correctly to match the context of what is being said.
None of this is to say AI is useless. Its very good at creating a “good enough” quick-fix, or to be used to fill unimportant or trivial work. If used to help clean up scripts or fill in backgrounds, it can speed up the process greatly at minimal cost. It’s a tool to be used by someone who knows the field, not to replace them.
- Comment on Half-Life 2 RTX | Half-Life 2 20th Anniversary Tribute Video 2 days ago:
In general, I agree, but I think you underestimate the benifits it provides. While ray-tracing doesn’t add much to more static or simple scenes, it can make a huge difference with more complex or dynamic scenes. Half Life 2 is honestly probably the ideal game to demonstrate this due to its heavy reliance on physics. Current lighting and reflection systems, for all their advancements and advantages, struggle to convincingly handling objects moving in the scene and interacting with each other. Add in a flickering torch or similar and things tend to go even further off the rails. This is why in a lot of games, interactive objects end up standing out in an otherwise well-rendered enviroment. Good raytracing fixes this and can go a really long way to creating a unified, variable look to an enviroment. All that is just on the player’s side too, theres even more boons for developers.
That said, I still don’t plan to be playing many RTX or ray-traced games any time soon. As you said, its still a nightmare performance wise, and I personally start getting motion sick at the framerates it runs at. Once hardware catches up more seriously, I think it will be a really useful tool.
- Comment on Why are most mobile games trash? 5 days ago:
A couple of major factors:
Users who expect low prices - This partly because of the history of mobile games being smaller and/or ad-funded but also because the vast majority of people playing games on their phone are looking for a low barrier to entry, time waster, not specifically a game.
Lack of regulation or enforcement - other gambling heavy fields tend to be at least somewhat regulated, but mobile games are very light on regulation, and even lighter on enforcement. This allows them to falsely advertise their games and how they function (both in terms of misleading ads, and lying about chance based events and purchases in-game).
Monopolistic middlemen - On other platforms, theres more direct competition (IE, Sony and Microsoft’s generally more direct competition) or companies that prioritize long-term growth and stability (IE Steam or Itch.io). Apple and Google, on the other hand, largely compete on brand perception and hardware specs. These means that their app stores, where they make most of their money, have zero competitors. See as they have no reason to make the stores better, they can instead promote whatever makes them the most money; that being exactly these manipulate, sketchy, virtual slot machines.
- Comment on Are there ways to use VR headset for realtime assistance? 5 days ago:
I think it is technically possible - with the Valve Index you can read the camera input like a webcam, and I’m sure theres some way to do it with the Quests (although probably not easily). That said, as others have noted, between the bulkyness of the headset, the lower quality of the cameras, the risk of losing tracking, and the natural shakyness of people’s heads, it likely wouldn’t be an improvement. Try watching VR footage from someone who doesn’t stream/video it regularly and you can get an idea of how hard the footage can be to follow, even before the lower camera quality.
- Comment on Anyone know of any good cheap/free trivia party games? 6 days ago:
It would be anywhere between 2 and 5.
- Comment on Anyone know of any good cheap/free trivia party games? 6 days ago:
Either physical or digital. And I have access to a PC (with a bunch of emulators) or mobile phones.
- Submitted 1 week ago to [deleted] | 15 comments
- Comment on On a lighter note: Why do people still buy fast food? 1 week ago:
Its not really about the taste - its about the speed and convenience. If you want good food, you make your own. If you just finished a shift in a particularly back-breaking job, and hate cooking, then its a chance to relax rather than spending another half hour or more cooking.
- Comment on What do you like/dislike about lemmy? 2 weeks ago:
Unfortunately, while it only takes one user to make these communities, there is rarely enough to maintain activity and esspecially not discussion on them. Even fairly large niches, such as Dota, rarely get more than a post or two a month, and no meaningful discussion despite it being a game that emphasizes theorycrafting so heavily.
- Comment on What do you like/dislike about lemmy? 2 weeks ago:
It absolutely can, but doesn’t always. For example, Gamer’s Nexus is well respected for their thorough and unbiased research and journalism. It would be extremely difficult for them to do so without ads and merch sales, as any products reviewed must be purchased, testing equipment needs to bought, and experts need to be hired to use said equipment. Until capitalism ceases to exist, most people who make stuff will need to find a way to fund their work, from paint brushes to high-end testing equipment.
- Comment on What do you like/dislike about lemmy? 2 weeks ago:
Like:
-
Decentralized system that limits abuse
-
Great customizaion
Dislike:
-
Lack of even remotely niche content (aside from Linux and infosec content)
-
Generally very pessimistic userbase
-
Lacks polish and features in many areas
-
Currently trends towards extremist echo chambers - the fact that .ml (an instance known for banning criticism of violent, racist, authoritarian governments) is one of the biggest instances, is a good example of this.
-
- Comment on Do you actually care about your friend's new baby, vacation abroad or similar life events or are you just being nice? 4 weeks ago:
I definately care some, although not enough that I want to sit through a photo slideshow or that. That said, if its just daily photos to a family group chat, or listening to them talk about a particular trip highlight, then I certainly enjoy it.
- Comment on What is the current best smart TV software/brand/ecosystem option? 5 weeks ago:
Can you confirm that this setup still works? At least with Kodi, all the apps had been discontinued, and that link is three years old.
- Comment on Is duck tape magnetic? 5 weeks ago:
That article doesn’t cover it, but the reason its called duck tape, is because its predecessor was made from duck cloth (a think fabric) with “duck” being a loanword from Dutch “doek”. Modern duct tape was just an improved, standardized version of this.
- Comment on What is the current best smart TV software/brand/ecosystem option? 5 weeks ago:
How do you get streaming services to work? As best as I can tell, none of them support much in the way of non-mouse inputs, and I wasn’t able to find any scripts/addons being maintained.
- Comment on What is the current best smart TV software/brand/ecosystem option? 5 weeks ago:
I mean, If I wanted to be controlling everything with a mouse, I’d just sit at my desk, and unfortunately every other input method has near-zero support at this point, even for a lot of the more open seas options. Kodi with a paid, illegal service was basically the only option I found, and I’d really rather not go down that route, esspecially when handing off this device to less tech-savvy family.
- Submitted 5 weeks ago to [deleted] | 41 comments
- Comment on Is it realistic to set up a HTPC that doesn't need a keyboard or mouse? 5 weeks ago:
As best as I can tell, the addon recommended there has been discontinued as a result of having to fight Netflix’s DRM. Most recent posts report frequent issues with it. I was looking at other services, and unfortunately it seems the same or worse. I might try launchbox as another user suggested, and just use it to launch Windows apps, but I haven’t tested it yet.
- Comment on Is it realistic to set up a HTPC that doesn't need a keyboard or mouse? 5 weeks ago:
If you have any experience with using Kodi with streaming services? I’m seeing a lot of recommendations for it, but testing it out, I didn’t really see a good way to integrate it with things like Netflix or YouTube - not even a good way to launch the Windows apps for them.
- Comment on Is it realistic to set up a HTPC that doesn't need a keyboard or mouse? 5 weeks ago:
If you have experience with Kodi, how did you use it with streaming services (if you did)? I’m seeing a lot of recommendations for it, but testing it out, I didn’t really see a good way to integrate it with things like Netflix or YouTube - not even a good way to launch the Windows apps for them.
- Comment on Is it realistic to set up a HTPC that doesn't need a keyboard or mouse? 1 month ago:
Am I missing something? Kodi doesn’t seem to have any support for any streaming services, nor any good way to launch the relevant apps from the home screen?
- Comment on Deadlocked is one of the funnest games I've played in a while 1 month ago:
Dota does too but its fairly hidden and requires unanimous agreement. That said, Dota is far less snowbally, so unlike League or Deadlock, it rarely makes sense to forfet very early.
- Comment on Is it realistic to set up a HTPC that doesn't need a keyboard or mouse? 1 month ago:
Do you know if it works anything like the Steam Deck’s game mode? For example, could I potentially add shortcuts for Chrome with specific launch options, or maybe even Kodi? I tinkered with setting up shortcuts for non-Steam items on my SteamDeck and had a some success before, so if its similar, that would probably work well.q
- Comment on Is it realistic to set up a HTPC that doesn't need a keyboard or mouse? 1 month ago:
As in just purely screen mirror from a phone?
- Comment on Is it realistic to set up a HTPC that doesn't need a keyboard or mouse? 1 month ago:
Thanks for the recommendation. Ill look into Launchbox more.
- Submitted 1 month ago to [deleted] | 25 comments
- Comment on Avatar: The Last Airbender Is Getting a AAA RPG With Saber Interactive and Paramount Game Studios - EXCLUSIVE 1 month ago:
There is an Avatar TTRPG and it faces similar problems to making a new game based on the series, and handles it similarly to what you’re suggesting.
The TTRPG divines the setting into Eras, Kyoshi era with the nations still being established, Roku era with established nations, The Hundred Years War era taking place during the war but before Ang wakes, The Aang era, after the show and its sequel comics, and the Kora era taking place after TLoK and its comic trilogy. Notably, none take place during the events of the main series. This means that the can create new stories that better fit the medium and don’t break cannon, and at the same time, you can still interact with significant characters and tie your story into the cannon such as making a quest resulting from the reprocusions of, or a prerequisite for events in the main canon.
- Comment on Fluffy With Valor 1 month ago:
- Comment on DarkPattern.games - a website that rates mobile games for their "dark patterns" 1 month ago:
At the same time, the goal of dark patterns to to make people spend more money. Given that revenue is very likely one of the key things Google wants (and thus promotes) out of apps, its also entirely expected that the apps people find are largely those who try and the most money from users, which requires dark patterns.
